Description : NEW HORIZONS ULTIMA THULE FLYBY
1 JANUARY 2019 - NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft flew by Ultima Thule within just 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers) at 12:33a.m. EST 1 January 2019, the most distant object ever visited (4 billion miles from the Sun) in the Kuiper Belt during the early hours of New Year’s Day a region of primordial objects that holds keys to understanding the origins of the solar system. Signals confirming the spacecraft is healthy and had filled its digital recorders with science data on Ultima Thule reached the mission operations center at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) at 10:29 a.m. EST, almost exactly 10 hours after New Horizons’ closest approach to the object.